What Story Physics Is All About

In this book, Brooks asks the writer to go much deeper into what makes a story more compelling, more conflicted, and more even vicarious for the reader. He shows you how to take your story to a whole new level.

Brooks’ six story forces—things you must absolutely have to make your story the best it can possibly be—are:

A compelling narrative premise, question or problem—readers are there to go on a journey with your hero. Make sure it’s the ride of their lives.

Expositional pacing—how fast or slow your story unfolds can make or break a story. You’ve gotta get readers aching to turn the page to find out what happens.

Hero empathy—we’re along for the ride with this guy, we better not only like him, but actually want to root for his victory too.

A vicarious reading experience—readers want to experience something that’s outside their norm. Take them somewhere they’d never get to go in real life and make it memorable.

Narrative strategy—choose the best character’s POV to tell the story from, find a creative story-telling angle that works.

You can read a whole lot more about these story forces—and how to use them—in Brooks book, Story Physics.

Now, my favorite part of this book are the story deconstructions that Brooks provides: one for the book, The Help; the other for the book, The Hunger Games. These deconstructions are priceless when it comes to understanding how to put together a compelling story that works on many different levels.

It’s a whole new ball game.

I love being able to read the deconstructions alongside the actual books, to really be able to dig in and analyze the story (a writer-nerd hobby of mine). I do the same thing with movies. It helps me be a stronger writer and storyteller.

If you’re a writer who wants to up your game, and become even better at telling stories and shaping them into books that readers can fall in love with, get off your ass right now and go get yourself a copy of Story Physics by Larry Brooks (or you can just sit there and order it from your Kindle, I won’t judge ya).

Crowdfunding is a means for artists and entrepreneurs to mitigate financial risk by raising funds for their projects. Think of it like Kickstarter for books.

And now you may be wondering…

How Can Crowdfunding Be Used By Writers?

If you’re a writer who’s thinking about self-publishing, crowdfunding is an option you will definitely want to consider.

Rather than incurring out-of-pocket expenses, a successful crowdfunding campaign will provide you with funds—pre-publication—to lessen the financial burden of self-publishing.

Crowdfunding is a great way to raise the funds for your next book project, but don’t think it can happen without some hard work.

In order to run a successful campaign, you need to have a marketing plan and be prepared to aggressively implement that plan. This is the single most important fact to realize upon committing yourself to a crowdfunding effort.

If you’re thinking about crowdfunding your book, here are a few tips to get you started:

Devise A Plan Pre-Campaign

Typically, crowdfunding campaigns run from 30-60 days. In order to maximize your efforts it’s vital you have a viable marketing plan before you launch your campaign.

Breaking your marketing plan down into weekly increments will help you better manage your time, and gauge your short-term vs. long-term goals of the campaign.

Do Your Research

Publishing a book has a lot of variables, so it’s important to know the goal of your crowdfunding campaign. A full-scale publishing effort will require much more money than someone who wants to raise funds just to hire an awesome editor.

You need to research the costs of your goals in order to properly plan your campaign.

Utilize Your Network

A majority of your supporters will come from your own network and this should be the first step to your outreach efforts. Sending personalized e-mails to the people in your network may be time consuming, but it’s essential.

E-mail them about the launch of your campaign and ask for their support. Be sure to provide the link to your campaign to make it as easy as possible for them to support you.

Also, it’s a good idea to include an e-mail template and ask them to share the news of your campaign with their own network as well.

Again, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to support you and spread the word.

Target Your Audience

When reaching out to people outside of your network it’s best to target your specific audience. All books have an audience and you can bet that audience is on the Internet, so search for blogs that pertain to your genre or niche and search relevant hashtags on Twitter to find your audience.

A targeted outreach effort will yield much better results than simply reaching out to anyone who has “books” listed in their Twitter bio.

Stay Committed

It’s very easy to start out your campaign strong only to peter out a few weeks in. If you lose interest in your campaign then there’s no hope for your audience.

You need to be as enthusiastic and committed on the last day as you were on the first day.

Also, once you gain support from someone, don’t forget about them! Continue to keep them updated throughout and after your campaign. After all, your supporters are financially backing you and it’s your responsibility to ensure they’ve made a sound investment.

These are just the basics if you’re thinking about crowdfunding for your book. Pubslush offers an abundance of information about how to run a successful campaign, what comes next after your campaign is finished, the publishing process and more.

Have you ever tried crowdfunding your writing project?

About the Author:Justine Schofield is the communications coordinator of Pubslush, a global, crowdsourcing publishing platform for authors to raise funds and gauge the initial audience for new book ideas. Pubslush also operates an independent imprint that acquires books from the platform, and for every book sold, donates a children’s book to a child in need.

Staring at a blank white screen can make a writer, or any person for that matter, go entirely mad. The pressure to fill the empty document with letters and characters that combine to form insightful words and witty dialogue, makes me stray from my writing, pushing it to the side as I waste time on Tumblr, Facebook or other semi-mindless social networks.

I’ve recently come across a way to calm the nerves that come with an empty document —pictures.

Everyone knows the saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but have you ever tried to write those thousand words? Pictures can be a great jumping off point for a story or a novel.

In fact, the highly acclaimed author, Junot Diaz, uses lots of photos as inspiration. In a New York Times article, he shared that he found inspiration for his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” in a picture of his father dressed in a fascists uniform.

How The Picture to Inspiration Process Works

So here is what I do when I’m devoid of writing inspiration and motivation, in three simple steps:

1. Find Some Photos to Look At

I start by searching through my friend’s photos on Facebook.

Remember though, you don’t have to start on Facebook, because there are plenty of great sites to search for photos, like:

Pinterest—Aside from craft ideas, ways to paint your fingernails and recipes, you can find some interesting visuals, from fashion magazine spreads to vibrant graphics, and pictures of amazing buildings with unusual shaped rooms.

Flickr—You probably know this site as a place to upload your photos online, but it also serves as a gallery of all flickr users photos. All you have to do is click “Explore” and you can browse a never-ending gallery of beautiful and diverse images.

Life Magazine—If you are looking to write about history or a different time, Life Magazine has a plethora of their photo archives online. Here you can find amazing black and white images of things ranging from the first Super Bowl to photographs of fish skeletons. It’s an amazing resource.

2. Transfer the Photo(s) to Your Document

Once you’ve gone through and found a picture that really captures your imagination, you can choose to save the image privately in a document. Just right click on the image, and copy it onto the top of your document. This way it’s always on your document, and it takes your attention away from that blank page anxiety.

If you do decide to copy the photo onto your document, be sure to link the image to the URL where it came from (or keep track of the URL somehow), that way you can give proper credit to the person who owns it.

Alternatively, you could also create a bookmark folder on your browser for “Inspiring Images.”

3. Start Writing

Now you write.

I can’t help you develop a story—that’s on you—but sometimes it’s nice to just try stream of consciousness and write whatever pops into your head when staring at the picture. It also works if you take one specific element from a picture and use it to inspire you.

For instance, I recently found one of my friend’s pictures from her cruise to Barbados. I imagined the sunset as a scene in a fantasy story, where the sun never completely sets and there is always an intense orange glow in the sky.

If you are already working hard on a piece, a photo can work just as well to rev your writing engine. You can find inspiration in pictures for a plot twist, or a new character development, or perhaps an ominous dream.

Have you used photos as inspiration? Do you have any tips?

About the Author: Karolina Shenton is a cruise consultant at The Cruise Web. The Cruise Web is a travel agency that specializes in cruising. The expert cruise consultants focus on providing travelers with the best value for their time and money in finding and booking a cruise vacation! Check out our site for the best deals for cruises to the Caribbean, cruises to Alaska and much more.

One way is to set it in a real location and drop in a wealth of authentic minutia. That location is real so the story must be too!

A more subtle technique is to suggest that our characters exist in another world, independently of the story. In the tales of Sherlock Holmeswe continually bump against allusions to Holmes’s previous exploits. Watson, the narrator, pretends that they’re a matter of public record. They actually happened, in the real world. Or so we’re given to believe.

Result: many readers feel that Holmes and Watson are still ‘alive’ today. And women still do apply to 221B Baker Street for employment as their housekeeper.

Both techniques create the illusion of a ‘story behind the story’. The events have depth and dimension, just like those in real life.

A device even more subtle is toweave in a ‘shadow story.’

This is a tale that exists beneath the surface, like the hidden thread in a tapestry. It may have nothing to do with the main story, directly. Its purpose is to give it a tantalizing illusion of depth.

Peter Ackroyd made good use of this ‘shadow’ technique in The House of Dr Dee. It’s two stories in one and, at first, neither seems related to the other.

In one chapter, we’re following the 16th century exploits of Dr Dee, Queen Elizabeth’s favorite astrologer. In the next, a 20th century narrator is gloomily inspecting Dr Dee’s ancient London house, which he has just inherited. The story flits disconcertingly between the two characters and timelines.

What was Ackroyd’s purpose? He wanted to endow the mundane story of his modern narrator with an eerie timeless dimension.

At the end, the two stories come together and the one deepens the other. We discover that the narrator is Dr Dee, a magician who lives outside of time and reincarnates himself in every generation.

Creepy!

But we don’t need to be writing an historical mystery or sci-fantasy to use that device. Here’s how we can create an effect of timeless depth in any genre of story:

How To Write A ‘Shadow Story’ Step-by-Step

First, devise two plots with different settings and characters. They might be located in separate places or even time periods. But endow each one with a comparable theme.

Play those stories against each other so that each acts as an ironic counterpoint to the other. Here’s an instance:

Main narrative: A modern teenager is digging her garden and finds a ring set with curious jewels. Is it valuable? She needs money to buy a dress for her prom yet can’t bring herself to pawn the ring.

Flashback to the 17th century: A countess is getting married. On her finger is a magnificent ring, the gift of her lordly husband, a man with dark eyebrows and a hooked nose. On their honeymoon they romp together in the garden. At the climax of their passion, she loses the ring. He curses her negligence — it’s a family heirloom! — and abandons her. She dies childless and embittered.

Return to modern times: The girl wears the ring to her prom ball. She meets a lad with dark eyebrows and a hooked nose. He expresses a strange interest in her ring…

Well, you can guess the rest. Do they marry? Does she give him the ring as a wedding gift? And he loses it? Perhaps she forgives him and they found a dynasty together. The ring is passed on from daughter to daughter across a dozen generations.

Or maybe she curses his negligence and stalks out of their marriage…

Either way, that ‘shadow’ plot has endowed the tale with an eerie, timeless resonance.

Both those stories are self-contained. Both work independently of the other. Yet both are linked by a common theme.

It’s not essential that the main and sub-plot come together at the close. Provided their theme is similar the reader will create that sense of unity in their own mind. They won’t be able to explain why, but our story will seem uncannily — perhaps even creepily — ‘real’.

What shadow themes have you noticed in both movies and novels?

About the Author: Dr John Yeoman, PhD Creative Writing, judges the Writers’ Village story competition and is a tutor in creative writing at a UK university. He has been a successful commercial author for 42 years. A wealth of further ideas for writing fiction that sells can be found in his free 14-part story course.

You may be thinking that you can’t write an eBook because there are just too many out there already and what would you have to say that other people haven’t said a million times before? Or maybe you have an idea, but just aren’t sure what the process of writing an eBook is.

I found a lot of my readers were curious about writing an eBook, so I put together a series on my other blog, InkyBites, to help you know exactly what to do, from start to finish:

Will my clients be unhappy if I increase my rates? What do I do if I increase my rates and some clients are unwilling to pay?

These are just some of the many questions that you will inevitably ask yourself when considering your freelance rates.

Start With Timing

The first thing to think about is timing. You don’t want to increase your rates before your experience and product warrants it. A good indication of the level of your work is the satisfaction of your existing clients.

So get feedback from your clients. If they are happy with the standard of your work then you can think about increasing your rates.

Take this into account, as well as the extent of your experience. If you have been a freelancer for more than 6 months without an increase in rates, then maybe raising your rates is seriously something to consider.

The thing to remember is that you are offering a service. Your client is paying both for your time and for your experience, and they would not be doing so if they didn’t think you were worth it.

Clearly when you first start out as a freelancer, you will not be charging large sums of money. It takes time to build up a portfolio and a client base, but once you have a satisfied client base and a portfolio that you are proud of, it’s time to raise your rates.

In some cases a good indication of when to increase your rates is when clients suggest an increase in what they are happy to pay. But of course this is not always going to happen and most clients will be more than happy to continue paying a lower rate for your work.

If this is the case then you need to be confident enough in your own skills and the quality of your work to suggest an increase.

Gain More Confidence In Yourself

Many freelancers are anxious about raising their rates. An easy way to go about doing it is to build your rate increases in increments.

Start by giving five clients a particular rate, and then give new clients a rate that you have slightly increased. Once you have a base of clients at the new rate, you can assess the willingness of your current clients paying the lower rate to now pay a slightly elevated rate.

The anxiety of raising your rates often comes from a fear of losing clients and negatively impacting your business. You may feel fearful of asking your current clients to pay a higher rate going forward, because you don’t want to lose them.

So what happens if some clients are unwilling to pay the increased rate?

On the one hand you can accept this, but ask them to commit to an increase in rates in two or three months; on the other hand you can stick to your guns. Only you will know which approach is right for which client.

On the whole though, the people and companies that you work for are businesses themselves and so will have an appreciation for the difficulty of running a business and will in most cases think it is standard to raise rates at some point.

Realistically the moment you begin to think about raising your rates, is about the time you should do it. No one is more critical of your work than you are.

Have you ever raised your freelance rates? How did you navigate that tricky landscape?

About the Author:Richard McMunn established How2become in 2005, when he was working as a Fire Officer for Kent Fire & Rescue Service at the time. Since writing his first book, how to become a firefighter, Richard has gone on to author various titles spanning across multiple careers . The company has grown and developed into the UK’s leading careers information and development website. Connect with How2become on Facebook.

Every writer—no matter how big or small, experienced or inexperienced, prolific or scarce—has those moments when they struggle to see beyond the empty page in front of them, and when just about anything in the world seems a more attractive alternative to sitting down to write.

To borrow from a famous quote, the case could be made that the art of writing revolves around roughly 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, and preparing yourself for the challenge awaiting you can sometimes appear too daunting to handle.

There are, however, a number of motivational tactics to help see you past the finish line without resorting to hitting the booze cupboard and slowly losing your mind with stress.

So if you’re struggling to get started or losing the requisite willpower to continue with your project, then the following methods might provide some much-needed assistance:

1. Have Faith In Your Vision

It’s often said that we are our own worst enemies when it comes to judging our work. Using your imagination and plying your craft often carries with it much emotional baggage.

After many hours of writing, one lousy-looking sentence can lead you to believe that none of it is any good. In this state, it can become very difficult to analyze your writing in an objective manner.

The chances are your writing isn’t worthless.

The chances are that if one lousy-looking sentence gets you down, you have very high standards. Your writing is probably very good.

Having faith in your vision can be a struggle at the best of times, and the most important thing you can do is to remember that every writer experiences this.

2. Discuss Your Writing Regularly With Friends and Fellow Colleagues

There is only so much that you can do on your own. Discussing your work regularly with friends and colleagues is a great motivational tool if you find yourself struggling to make it work.

If you talk about your work with others and bounce ideas off one another, chances are you’ll walk away with a renewed excitement to get back at your desk to write.

There is nothing wrong with seeking some approval for what you’re doing. And there is nothing better than seeing someone else’s enthusiasm for your creative ideas.

Seeing their excitement is a huge confidence booster when it comes to writing. Sometimes all you need is a little kick in the right direction, and it’s our friends and colleagues that can do it for us.

3. Break Down the Writing Into Manageable Sections

Long journeys across deserts are split by the stars of the night. And every great mountain climb has been tackled in slow stages.

Nothing great can ever be achieved all at once. Writing is no different.

Afterwards, glance over your work and you will be amazed at the things you come up with.

This simple motivational tool can work wonders in opening your mind to new ideas and possibilities. By letting your pen and emotion carry you forth, you’ll find something you’re passionate about and be able to let it flow.

Hopefully at least one of these tips will have struck a chord in you somewhere and you’re now ready to write.

3. Think of the Reward

Think positively by focusing on what your reward will be for finishing your writing tasks. And if the reward is not good enough to motivate you, instead think of it as a challenge and complete the task just to see if you can!

4. Start With the Hardest (Or Easiest) Task

People tend to postpone the most difficult assignments, though this is a mistake. It’s better to just do them and get them over with.

Of course sometimes it’s easier to start if you start with the easiest writing task you have and work your way up to the bigger tasks.

6. Define the Consequences

Sometimes we need to remember the consequences of our procrastinating actions in order to motivate ourselves to do something.

Define the most unpleasant consequences of not doing your tasks. For example, if you are in college, think how bad it would feel coming back to your parents’ home with a guilty look after having failed school because you procrastinated on all of your projects/assignments.

Sure, it’s a bit harsh, but it could just be the kick you need to get moving.

7. Prioritize Your Task List

You can use different colors to highlight the most important and the least important things you need to do. That way at the bare minimum you always get your most important tasks completed.

If you can define and then execute on 1-3 of the most important things you need to do toward your goal every single day, you’d be light-years away from where you are today.

8. Ask Someone to Motivate You

Ideally find a person who is already doing what you want to be doing, and ask them to mentor and motivate you. You could hire a coach or find an accountability buddy on Twitter.

Find a way to make—and keep—yourself accountable.

9. Set Deadlines for Every Task

Urgency to act is what you want to create. If things on your to-write list seem urgent, now’s the time to take care of them.

11. Change Your Environment

Using these tips, you can easily get moving on your writing project. Just imagine how great you’ll feel once it’s all finished!

How do you ensure you always get your writing projects done on time?

About the Author:This article is provided by one of the freelance writers of EvolutionWriters.com service. This company has been operating and helping students around the world for a long time and offers a wide range of professional writing services.

[Note:Procrastinating Writers is not affiliated with EvolutionWriters.com, and the use of this guest post is not a recommendation of their services by us.]

Stop Procrastinating

Check out what Piers Steel, a business professor at the University of Calgary, revealed:

In the 1970s, only about 5% of Americans admitted to procrastinating on a regular basis. By 2002, the popularity of procrastination had rocketed up to 26%.

What do you supposed the percentage would be today?!

Procrastination can be traced back to a variety of sources—laziness, lack of motivation, stress overload, and much more. If you believe Denis Waitley, an American motivational speaker:

“Procrastination is the fear of success…because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ‘someday, I’ll…’ philosophy”

But let’s not waste any more time on trying to determine why you aren’t writing. That is just delaying your results even longer. Shame on us!

1. Perfection is overrated.

Anne Lamott shared the following: “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor. It will keep you insane your whole life.”

Your writing might not be perfect. It might have grammaratical errors that would make your high school English teacher roll in her grave. But if you do the work, it will be a completed project. And it will be yours.

If you wait for perfection, you’ll be procrastinating forever. Instead, let your head and heart dictate your writing.

2. Get in the zone.

Sometimes, all it takes to propel you to action is a bit of inspiration. Take a look at what you’ve accomplished so far. Awaken the muse. Let your past writing act as a springboard for your current project.

But don’t stay at this stage too long. If you do, you’ll just perpetuate the problem.

About the Author:Steve Aedy is an in-house content manager and a custom essay writing expert for Freshessays.com. He think that the best way to overcome procrastination is to take a break for a couple of days and fly to the South Pole. Follow him on Google+

1. Guest Blogging

To do it right, you should contact bloggers in the same industry. Be careful though, don’t guest post with bloggers who are in the same niche as you.

For example, if you write a blog about hiking shoes, you should contact a blogger who writes about hiking, not one that also writes about hiking shoes specifically. If you are a good guest blogger, you will not only gain traffic to your site; your SEO will also improve.

Remember —always create content that is enjoyable, valuable and unique.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In a nutshell, this means you must make sure to use the right keywords and publish relevant blog posts. Study the basics of SEO and understand keyword density, linking campaigns, and how to make your site more SEO friendly.

3. Content Is King

Remember that readers come to a blog for the content. Make sure you are writing valuable content that at the same time is immediately actionable.

Without a doubt, good content is the most crucial aspect of any blog, before advertising, outreach or anything else.

4. Reader Comments

A lot of people shut the comment section of their blog off — this can be a tremendous mistake. The comments section is often the only place where a reader can communicate directly with the blogger, and it should not be disabled.

In order to combat spam you can install filtering software (like Akismet for WordPress) or monitor the comments manually.

If your readers can have a dialogue with you, they will come back. Besides, listening to your readers will naturally improve your content, meaning your blog will become better which, again, can attract more visitors.

5. Leave Comments

Not only should a blogger leave their comments section open, they should also comment on other blogs.

Do not take advantage of this and leave spammy comments though. Make sure the comments add to the discussion.

If you leave legitimate comments, you will gain followers to your blog in no time. You can follow other blogs in your industry and make relevant comments when you can add to the discussion.

Readers won’t come to your site overnight. However, as long as you’re on the ball and following these tips, they will come!

How do you attract readers to your blog?

About the Author: Sue Ellen Rogers writes about her career in blogging, marketing & public relations. Her most recent work shines light on The Top 10 Best Affordable MBA Programs, a resource she wishes she had when she was earning her graduate degree in the 90s.